Nokia leads the way in security, analyst confirms

Nokia is dedicated to protecting next-generation networks from attacks and is a leader in the provision of network security solutions. On January 27, 2017, the annual Nokia Security Day was held at our headquarters in Espoo, Finland. This year’s event – which took place the day before Data Protection Day (known as Data Privacy Day in North America)1 – combined the Nokia Analyst Security Day with our annual Nokia HackAthon for the first time.

Mobile device infections on the rise

Data from the latest Nokia Threat Intelligence Report shows a 96% increase in mobile device infections in the first half of 2016. Infection rates hit an all-time high in April, reaching 1.06% of all mobile devices tracked. This translates to more than 22 million smartphones being affected.2

Getting down to business

Nokia Analyst Security Day attracted industry analysts from leading firms, including Analysys Mason, Gartner, Harden Stance, IDC and OVUM. Presentations focused on trends in network security and on recent developments from the Nokia portfolio of security solutions including:

The Internet of Things (IoT), including threat intelligence and analytics for intelligent IoT security;

5G, including how to ensure the privacy and security of networks and devices in an effort to protect users and data;

Security management and automation, to enable dynamic incident response; and

Cloud/virtualization, highlighting the importance of network security for the transformation to cloud-based network infrastructures.

Analysts paired up with Nokia security experts for a series of meetings and product demonstrations in order to dig deeper into various security-related topics.

Analyst Patrick Donegan of Harden Stance had this to say:
"Nokia is unique among big traditional "telecom" infra vendors in running a dedicated analyst event on security. Strong differentiation. The big takeaway for me was that there is no let-up in Nokia's strategic emphasis on security…The roadmap is being worked on to ensure that the leadership it has established relative to other vendors is maintained. It seems to me that the gap is still significant.”

Putting our solutions through the ringer; for the hack of it!

In parallel, 150 security experts from the industry’s leading information security solution organizations – and representations from several universities – attended the annual Nokia HackAthon. Participants were challenged to find any potential security vulnerabilities in the Nokia portfolio of NetGuard security solutions currently under development.

This year, we were joined by teams from Deloitte, Elisa, F-Secure, Fortinet, Insta, KPMG, Palo Alto Networks, Nixu, Clavister and the VTT Technical Research Center of Finland. Fueled by an ample supply of caffeine and ‘brain food’ – alongside a common passion for IT and network security – the teams spent seven hours, working feverishly to beat potential hackers to the punch. And, in the process, to provide a software hack aimed at safeguarding data privacy.

At the end of the day, the teams of ‘hackers’ joined the analysts to recap the day and share their collective knowledge of network security. The winning team came from VTT Technical Research Center of Finland, a leading research and technology company in the Nordics.

Congratulations and thank you to all participants of the annual Nokia HackAthon on behalf of everyone at Nokia.

Did you know that Nokia’s portfolio of NetGuard security solutions are designed to detect various strains of malware? Owing to their unique position as a network-based security tools, NetGuard examines packets as they traverse the network, making the detection of malware patterns easier. Deployed in a number of major networks around the world, NetGuard currently monitors network traffic from over 100 million devices.

Share your thoughts on this topic by replying below – or join the Twitter discussion with @nokianetworks or @nokia using #NokiaHackAthon #telcosecurity

1 “Data Protection Day commemorates the signing of Convention 108 (on January 28, 1981), the first legally binding international treaty dealing with privacy and data protection. Data Privacy Day began in the United States and Canada in January 2008 as an extension of the Data Protection Day;2Statista predicts that there were 2.1 billion smartphones in the world at the end of 2016. They further predict that this number will grow to 2.87 billion by 2020

About Gerald Reddig

Gerald leads the global portfolio marketing efforts for Nokia’s security solutions. He is a member of the broadband forum, directs Nokia´s membership in the IoT Cybersecurity Alliance and steers Nokia´s Security center in Finland. Gerald is on the speaker’s circuit at international conferences and a recognized author on the topics he’s passionate about: cybersecurity technology, data privacy and finding the right solutions to prevent vulnerabilities, hacker trojans or man-in-the-middle attacks.